Set In Stone
by EmeraldMoonStar
Summary: Sakura wants to give her heart to someone, but hers belongs to someone else, whether she likes it or not.
1. So It Begins

**Yup, just a random idea that popped into my head while playing with my Naruto Sims. I really need to stop writing impulsively. Not sure of the pairings just yet so feel free to suggest some! Umm... yeah... Hope you like it!**

**I don't own a single thing T.T But maybe I will get a nice early Christmas present *wink wink, nudge nudge***

Haruno Sakura was scared out of her mind. She was training with her shishou, the Godaime Hokage, who was known for her amazing medical abilities and insane strength, but that wasn't why she was scared.

Over the years that Sakura became Tsunade's apprentice, they had gotten to be very close. Tsunade was like a second mother to Sakura. They had laughed together; they had cried on the other's shoulder, they encouraged the other when they were in need of it. It was also why Tsunade was very protective of Sakura, and had made it very clear that if any man were to even look at her the wrong way, they'd have Tsunade to answer to. So it was more than obvious why Sakura hadn't had a boyfriend in all her 16 years of life.

Master and apprentice were able to sense the other's emotion when they were together, which was why Tsunade asked.

"Sakura? Why are you so nervous?" she questioned. "You weren't this nervous the very first time you came to me to train." Tsunade raised an eyebrow slightly. "What happened?"

Sakura swallowed and looked at her feet. She began to nudge the dirt idly with the end of her boot. She swallowed again before answering the question.

"Well, you know how Sasuke-kun has been back for over a year now and…" she trailed off, hoping half-heartedly that Tsunade wouldn't press her. Luck wasn't on her side.

"And…?" Tsunade prompted. Sakura was really acting strange and Tsunade was definitely curious as to why. It took quite a bit to really rattle Sakura. In fact, the last time she had been seriously messed up was when Sasuke left. When she came walking through the gates with him and Naruto, though, she was the happiest girl in the world. The grin on her face looked like it would split her face in half. Tsunade smiled a bit at the fond memory. She liked seeing Sakura happy, so seeing her this nervous was making Tsunade want to know who had made her this way.

"I was…I mean… I am planning on asking him out." Sakura said softly. Tsunade's eyes widened. It was true that Sakura's feelings for the Uchiha had not faded with time, but instead had grown. He seemed to be much more accepting of her too, he had yet to insult her as he used to as a Genin.

Then Tsunade remembered the look on Sakura's face when she had told her that Sasuke had left. Her eyes narrowed. She had never liked the Uchiha very much, and her distaste for him was not very well concealed in front of Sakura.

"No!!!!" Tsunade yelled. Sakura flinched in surprise. She hadn't expected Tsunade to like to, but this reaction was not what Sakura was prepared for. It had always angered Sakura that Tsunade disapproved of her friend so openly, so Sakura stood tall and took a step towards her master.

"Sasuke-kun has done nothing wrong." She said calmly, though the steel in her tone was evident. " There is no reason why we shouldn't date."

Sakura's sudden change in stance has surprised Tsunade a little. 'She must feel strongly about this.' She thought, clearly disappointed. Still, she saw Sakura's movement as a challenge and she rose to it. Tsunade took a step towards Sakura, a more confident step than Sakura's.

" You want a reason?" Tsunade asked with amusement. She didn't give Sakura time to answer before continuing. "He betrayed Konoha, he tried to kill you and Naruto, and he served Orochimaru. Not to mention he also left you on that oh-so comfortable bench." Tsunade smirked at that one. Even now, that was a touchy subject with Sakura.

Sakura visibly winced at the mention of the last reason. That was a hurt that ran deep, and it was almost cruel of Tsunade to mention it. Tsunade really didn't want Sakura to ask him, and damn it all, Sakura wanted to know why.

"Sasuke-_kun_ has formally apologized for his betrayal and has been cleared of the charges. He also completed your punishment, even though he wasn't required to." Sakura snapped while drawing out the 'kun' to irritate her shishou.

Tsunade eyes narrowed almost imperceptibly at the suffix. Almost. The mention of the punishment put an amused smirk on her face. It was true that he hadn't had to complete the punishment. Cleaning the academy toilets once every week for a year was a bit harsh, she had to admit, making her smirk more noticeable now. 'But he deserved it.' She told herself confidently. She honestly believed that he deserved the humiliation after how he had humiliated his only friends.

"He deserved what he got." She sneered. Sakura fired up at once.

"What did you sa-!?"

"Enough!" Tsunade bellowed. "It is not up for negation! You are not to initiate anything romantic with Uchiha!"

"You can't tell me who I can and cannot date!" Sakura screamed right back, composure completely forgotten.

"Oh, yes I can!" Tsunade laughed back, despite her rage. "I'm the, Kami-sama be damned, Hokage and I can outlaw it!"

"**Hokage my ass, I can do whatever I want with whatever boy I want!" **Inner Sakura yelled, now fully enraged. ** "Shannaro! I could go ask out Danzou if I wanted to!"**

Outer Sakura very slightly widened her eyes at her inner's comment. It was a genius remark that inspired her next argument.

"I'll just have to go ask Danzou then instead." She said coldly and started to walk away.

Tsunade clenched her fists. 'Damn that girl.' Danzou was probably the one person in Konoha that Tsunade hated more than Sasuke. It took nearly the entire woman's self control not to punch him to oblivion when they were in the same room.

"Don't you even think about taking another step, _kohai_!" Tsunade said darkly.

Sakura looked back over her shoulder in a seemingly bored way. Really, though, she knew not to push Tsunade much more. A quiet Tsunade was actually scarier than a yelling Tsunade. Deciding to stop beating around the bush, Sakura said what was on her mind.

"Could you at least tell me why I can't date him?" she asked quietly, so quietly that she wasn't sure that she had even been heard.

Tsunade let out a big sigh and had a tired look on her face. She looked 10 years older, which surprised Sakura. She hadn't thought Tsunade was _that _angry about this.

"I was really hoping I wouldn't have to be the one to tell you. Come" She started, her voice barely above a whisper. She began to walk in the direction of her office with Sakura right behind her.

The two walked in silence the entire way. Sakura was brimming with curiosity and the satisfaction that she was finally going to get an answer. She had a feeling that it wasn't going to be a happy one, though.

Upon reaching the office, Tsunade motioned for Sakura to sit in the chair across from her desk. She did so quickly and watched her master walk around her desk and sink into her own chair. Tsunade then opened a drawer in her desk and pulled out a normal looking folder except for the large 'confidential' stamped across the front. The other odd thing about it was that, though it looked old, it was in pristine condition. Tsunade's thumb happened to be on the tab, so Sakura had no clue what the folder contained. Tsunade then brought one of her hands to her temple and began to lightly massage it. The other was still clutching the folder; thumb keeping the contents a mystery.

"Sakura…" Tsunade said slowly to make sure that she was paying attention; she was not going to repeat herself. She had no reason to worry, as Sakura was leaning forward in her chair, waiting for the answers she wanted.

"This is a highly confidential matter and you are not to tell anyone what I am about to tell you. Understood?" she said seriously. Sakura nodded in response.

"About a week before you were born, your parents had something arranged." Tsunade explained lowly.

"Arranged? They have never mentioned anything to me." Sakura thought out loud. Tsunade smiled minutely at her words.

"Let me finish before you ask anymore questions, but I will answer that one." Tsunade replied, her smile now gone. "Your parents, along with anyone else who knows, is forbidden to mention it."

Sakura opened her mouth as though to ask a question, but realizing what her shishou had said about questions, she shut her mouth. Tsunade continued.

"Your parents knew that you would be a girl, so they had already started thinking about the future; your future to be frank."

'My future?' was her confused thought. Inner Sakura just shrugged; she knew no more than Outer Sakura did about this. She barely even thought about her future. What she was going to wear tomorrow was about how far she thought in the future. Tsunade now had her undivided attention.

Tsunade sighed heavily before speaking again. " They wanted you to have powerful, highly coveted connections so that you could be free to do what you liked for a profession."

That made sense to Sakura. Your connections could very well affect what jobs you could and could not do. She silently thanked her parents for thinking of that.

"They also wanted to make sure you would be taken good care of if something happened to them. They wanted to know that your husband would treat you right." Tsunade paused before saying what she knew would get a major reaction from her apprentice. "They arranged a marriage for you."

Sakura's eyes nearly bulged out of her head. She began shaking with a rage so powerful that her knuckles turned white from clenching them so hard. Within seconds, she had drawn blood from them, but she was too much in shock to notice, or even care. Despite herself, she let one word slip past her lips, which were now in an impossibly thin line.

"Who?" she spat the word through clenched teeth, her voice full of venom. Tsunade now raised her other hand to her temple, revealing the tab at last.

'Haruno, Sakura

Marriage Documents'

With her new knowledge, this title didn't evoke any more emotion than Sakura already felt. She instead eyed her shishou with a hungry look, demanding an answer to her question.

"That is the problem, Sakura." Tsunade continued wearily. "There was no reason to think that something would go wrong… We had completely forgotten about this when that happened…"

"Tell me." Sakura was beyond mad. Her shaking had increased to the point to where the chair she sat in began to shake along with her.

"Uchiha Itachi." Tsunade whispered. "You are engaged to Uchiha Itachi."

Sakura exploded. "WHAT?!?!?!WHYINTHEHELLAMIENGAGEDTOHIM?!?!?!" She bellowed at a ridiculously fast pace and volume.

Tsunade ran over and tapped Sakura on the throat. Her rant was cut short because she could no longer talk. She clawed at her throat, willing it to make some sort of noise, but it was to no avail.

"I will reconnect your vocal cords when you are able to control yourself." Tsunade informed her calmly. She then sat back down at her desk and preceded to wait for Sakura to calm down. The said girl was punching the wall repeatedly; too enraged and horrified to even be able to mold chakra correctly. After about 20 minutes of this, an exhausted Sakura slumped back into her seat with tears streaming down her face, leaving dirty trails behind.

Tsunade decided it was safe to let Sakura talk again, so she walked over and tapped her neck again. Sakura still made no noise, even though she could if she wanted to. She was still shaking, though from restrained sobs instead of anger.

"Can't it be annulled?" she desperately asked, her voice cracking in a heart-breaking way. Tsunade just shook her head sadly.

"An alive member from both families must consent. Sasuke wasn't born yet, so therefore, he cannot do anything. And…_he_ killed any Uchiha who was alive at the time of your birth."

Sakura's heart sank. There was nothing she could do. It was true that she didn't _have_ to marry him, but unless the document was annulled, she couldn't marry anyone else. Her strong spirit refused to be crushed. There was one way to end this nightmare, and she was determined enough to at least try.

"There is one Uchiha still alive who is old enough." She said, her voice dead of all emotion. It took a second, but Tsunade realized who she meant and what she must be planning to do.

"You can't seriously think that you will be able to find Itachi, explain to him who you are, get him to come back here, and sign the agreement?!" she asked incredulously.

"No, I don't." Sakura said simply. "But I am going to try."

Tsunade just looked at her for a minute. "I'm not going to be able to stop you, am I?" Sakura shook her head in response. "I can prepare a team of ANBU later this afternoon to go with you." Offered Tsunade.

"With all due respect, shishou, I need to do this alone." Sakura said, trying to sound stronger than she felt. Tsunade regarded her before nodding.

"I understand. Go."

**I know this sounds pretty absurd, but hey, it's my story! Review please, and if you absolutely must flame, be civil about it! And cuz I feel like it...**

**SASUSAKUITA RULES!!!!!!**

**Review and I'll give you cookies....**


	2. Captured

**Yes, I changed the characters from Sakura H. and Sasuke U. to Sakura H. and Itachi U. Why? You'll just have to see...**

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After hearing the terrible news, Sakura had run straight home. Fortunately, no one had stopped her while she was in town. Actually, no one she knew had even seen her. She had deliberately taken the long way home to avoid going past Ichiraku, because Naruto was bound to be there.

Once she had unlocked and opened the door to her home, she went straight to the couch and collapsed and began sobbing her heart out. She knew her parents weren't home, so she did even bother going to her room to let her feelings out.

'Who am I kidding? There's no way I could even find Itachi, let alone convince him not to kill me long enough to explain why I'm there!' The thought made a wave of hopelessness wash over her. That caused more tears, not only because of her predicament, but now because of how pathetically helpless she felt.

Despite her current state, she knew that she could simply burn the documents, but that wouldn't change the fact that Tsunade and the Elders knew. If she did that, no priest would even consider marrying her. True, she could elope, but that only made her a missing-nin, and she would be hunted down for the rest of her life.

She curled up in a ball and began to rock herself slowly, as if to calm down. The tears still kept coming. Her eyes were starting to burn from all the tears she had cried.

She wasn't sure how long she was like that, and when she heard the doorknob turn, she quickly wiped her eyes free of tears. 'Just keep it together until whoever it is leaves.' She chanted that over and over in her head to strengthen her will.

"Sakura, Kakashi sent me here to…" Sasuke stopped in mid-sentence when he saw his teammate. Her eyes were bloodshot and glistening with tears. The skin all around her eyes was puffy and her skin was red and blotchy. She was clutching her knees as close to her chest as humanly possible with her head slumped on top of them. She looked as though she had just been told someone had died. Sasuke did what any man would've done in his place; he stared at her.

Sakura sniffled weakly. Of all times for Sasuke to come, he just had to be there now. She wiped her eyes again with the back of her hand before looking up at him.

"Sasuke-kun? What does Kakashi-sensei want?" Surprisingly, her voice was level and at a normal volume. Sasuke blinked before responding.

" He said that Tsunade-sama told you something important and that he wanted to talk to you." Sasuke didn't sound terribly interested in the matter, but he did not leave.

Sakura untangled herself from the couch and stood up. Her hair had gotten all messed up during her time on the couch and she went to go grab a brush. No sense in anyone else knowing that something was wrong. She would just have to put on a brave face. Still, she had to ask.

"Did Kakashi-sensei tell you anything about it?" Sakura wasn't sure whether she wanted Sasuke to know or not.

If he knew, she could at least discuss the problem with someone who would actually care. It annoyed Sasuke when Sakura talked to other guys about anything that wasn't strictly business, so if he knew that she was engaged to his brother… He would jump at the chance to help. He would also declare that he was going with her, though probably more interested in revenge. If Itachi was dead, the engagement would be void, and Sakura would be a free woman.

On the other side of that, if no one told him, he wouldn't have to have a heart attack at the mention of Itachi's name. He would be safe from his murderous brother, and that was a comforting thought to Sakura. She would never want him to be in that kind of danger. She couldn't live with herself if he got killed and it was her fault. She would have to keep the whole issue to herself, though. No help from anyone. She was alone.

"No."

"Oh…"

So he didn't know. 'At least he will be safe.' She assured herself. She ran a brush through her shoulder length petal pink hair and dabbed her eyes with a tissue before turning back to Sasuke. He hadn't left and had waited while she got cleaned up.

"I'm ready." She walked out of the door and Sasuke followed wordlessly. She locked the door with a click and prepared herself. Sasuke walked off in the direction of Kakashi's house, and Sakura walked beside him. Neither spoke the whole time, and Sakura was hoping that Sasuke would forget that he had seen her weak moment.

Upon arriving at Kakashi's house, Sakura raised her hand to knock on the door, but Sasuke opened it before she could. She remembered that he tended to just walk in rooms without warning, but Kakashi must've stressed that it was important for him to be doing that now. He held the door open and Sakura walked in with Sasuke following a second behind her.

Kakashi was leaning against a wall near the door and had his favorite book in his hand, Icha Icha Paradise. When he saw Sasuke and Sakura enter his home he shut the book and put it in his back pouch with ease, he'd had much practice in that.

"Sasuke, you can leave now."

Kakashi didn't want Sasuke to know about the whole Itachi thing. Sasuke would chase after him and end up throwing his life away, since he was still no match for Itachi. As usual with these types of things, something very unexpected happened.

A fairly young Jounin burst into the room. "Is it really true that Sakura knows about her engagement to Itachi and that she's going after him?"

Sakura whipped her head around so fast that her hair whacked Kakashi in the face, or what part of his face that his mask wasn't covering. She wasn't looking at the Jounin, however; she was looking to see Sasuke's reaction to all of this.

The thing was, he didn't react; he just stood there frozen. His face was emotionless as ever and he stood still like a statue. The only signs showing that he had even heard the Jounin was that he was incredibly stiff, and that his eyes were glazed, as if he was in his own world.

"I-I see that this is the case," the Jounin stumbled over his words. "I'll be on my way then." He exited leaving an annoyed Kakashi, a horrified Sakura, and a…brain dead Sasuke.

Sakura did not want to stick around to see Sasuke's reaction. If she did, she might never get to leave. So, naturally, she did the very intelligent thing. She did not talk it over with Kakashi.

She ran.

Sakura always kept a bag packed with the necessary supplies for a mission, in case she had to leave Konoha quickly, like this time. Retching the key out of her pocket, she unlocked the door for the second time that day and kept running to her bedroom.

Without bothering to see if her parents were home, she grabbed a packed backpack and flew out the door of her house, forgetting to lock it again. Luck was on her side as she reached the gates, seeing as no one had come after her. She sprinted right out of Konoha and took the trees.

-

Sakura slumped against a tree in utter exhaustion. She had been traveling full speed since she had left Konoha that afternoon. During that time, though, adrenaline had been pulsing through her system and by now it had long since worn off.

Before she can even stop herself, she falls into a deep sleep.

-

"Oi, Kisame, have you found the intruder yet?" a male voice asked over a radio.

"Yeah, and she is the strangest person I've ever seen." The one called Kisame answered.

"Describe her then, un." The other commanded irritably. Out of all the members of the Akatsuki, _he_ had to find the person on their territory. Obviously, he was in a bad mood.

"There's a young kunoichi sleeping against a tree, but get this, she has pink hair." Kisame told his companion. "Didn't a kunoichi you met two years ago have pink hair, Deidara?"

Deidara snorted over the radio. "I don't remember! I've met lots of kunoichis before, un."

In a few minutes, Deidara had found Kisame and was standing next to him on a tree branch a few yards from the kunoichi. Deidara cocked his head to the side while regarding her.

"Oh, I know her!" he said after about a minute. "You clearly have trouble seeing Kisame." Kisame turned his head to look at Deidara. "What makes you say that?" he sounded more confused that angry. Kisame turned to look at the slumbering kunoichi. She hadn't woken up and she did, indeed, have pink hair. He looked back at Deidara, confusion clear on his face.

Deidara just shook his head at the incredulity of the matter. " How could not mention that her forehead is wider than the Fire Country?" Deidara now looked at his fingernails and picked at his nail polish absent-mindedly. "If you'd said that, I could've told you that she's the one who got Sasori in a second!"

Kisame looked rather amused. "You can't remember her hair color, but you know that she has an abnormally wide forehead? Pft, some artist you are."

"Shut the hell up!"

Kisame placed a hand over Deidara's mouth. "Shh, if she wakes up, this will be a lot harder than it needs to be." Certain that Deidara wasn't going to yell anymore, Kisame removed his hand. "I'm not sure how to capture her without waking her up, though. She might be a light sleeper."

Deidara shook his head again and jumped to the ground with a soft thud. Ignoring Kisame's protests, he walked straight over to the sleeping kunoichi, and scooped her up in his arms. "Pft, some captor _you_ are."

-

When Sakura woke up, she had the biggest headache she had ever experienced. She groaned as she tried to sit up. She reached out to her right side to grab her backpack that she had discarded the night before to find that it was not there. Confused, Sakura sat straight up.

She regretted it immediately as her head started pounding. Groaning louder this time she looked around at her surroundings. She appeared to bee in a small, stone room completely empty of anything besides herself. There was one candle that was flickering pitifully while trying to illuminate the entire room. There was no window and only one door on the opposite side of the room.

It didn't take Sakura long to figure out she had been captured. She also knew better than to open the door, because that was asking for trouble, and it was probably locked anyway. Nevertheless, Sakura jumped to her feet at once, headache forgotten. Sensing a pathetic amount of chakra flowing, she didn't gather any to her fist and try to punch her way out of her prison.

Instead, she attempted to communicate with her captors. "Hey, you bastards had better get your sorry asses over her and tell me why the hell I'm even here, or I'll castrate you with my bare hands!"

One room above, Kisame, Deidara, Tobi, Hidan, and Itachi were in the main room of the hideout, minding their own business when Sakura's string of profanities reached their ears.

"Kisame, I believe the kunoichi has regained consciousness." Itachi said monotonously. Kisame nodded and continued to paint his fingernails.

Everyone remained unaffected by her never ceasing insults, except for Tobi. After hearing about castrating, his legs he trembled in fear. He knelt to the floor and called down to Sakura, "But Tobi is a good boy!"

Sakura stopped yelling when she had gotten a reply, granted it wasn't one she had expected.

"I don't give a damn if Tobi is the Queen of England!" she yelled back. "At least have the decency to talk to my face!"

Tobi leapt off the floor and hid behind Deidara. Deidara tried to get away from Tobi, but Tobi had already grabbed his shoulders. "Deidara-senpai, Tobi is scared of her!" Tobi ducked down so that he was peering out at everyone from Deidara's mid-back.

"Someone should probably do something about her, un." Deidara was now prying Tobi's hands off of him while looking disgusted. Hidan hadn't been terribly interested in watching Kisame paint his nails, so he decided to give Deidara a break. He walked over to where Sakura's voice was the loudest and gave a noisy stomp on the floor.

"Hey, bitch, all of your fucking racket is making it hard to concentrate!" he yelled down to her.

"And scaring Tobi!" the said Akatsuki member piped up.

"And scaring Tobi." Hidan added, more as an afterthought than anything. This didn't deter Sakura at all. " Well, _your_ fucking chakra draining sword is making it so I can't do a damn thing!"

With that remark, Deidara had freed himself from Tobi, who was no longer scared because of Sakura's mistake. Itachi had put his book down and was now watching Hidan, looking bored. Kisame had finished with his nails, and was waiting for them to dry, so he watched Hidan as well, for lack of anything better to do.

"Dumbfuck, I'm not Kisame! If you have a fucking problem with Samehada, take it up with him!" Hidan stormed off to a chair on the other side of the room, now in a bad mood.

Sakura was now pacing like a trapped animal. With that small mistake, she had learned hoards of information. She was the captive of the Akatsuki, and why they wanted her was unknown. She had only ever met three of the members, one of them she had killed. The one yelling at her was a very vocal person, and there seemed to be a young boy upstairs with them. She deemed the boy to be the most likely to tell her anything.

"Hey Tobi!" she did her best to keep her temper under control while calling up to him.

Above her, Tobi jumped in surprise. He trotted over to where she was in curiosity. Sakura had heard the footsteps, so she continued, "Could you please tell me why I am here?" she asked as civilly as she could manage in her current situation. To her surprise, he laughed.

"Kunoichi," he started then called over to his partner, "Deidara-senpai, what's her name?" Deidara shrugged, "Why would I know? She didn't introduced herself to me when we captured her, un."

"Haruno Sakura." Itachi said suddenly. Tobi turned to him with his head tilted, but he didn't ask Itachi how he knew. "Thanks, Itachi-san! You're a real friend!" Tobi turned his attention back to Sakura.

"Well, Sakura-chan, when a man and a woman love each other very much they-" Tobi was cut off by a pillow hitting his head.

Hidan looked even more irritated. "What the fuck are you talking about?!" Tobi now had his head tilted while looking at Hidan. "Sakura-chan asked why she is here and Tobi was being a good boy and telling her."

Kisame sighed heavily, "She means why is she with us, not why is she on Earth, Tobi." Tobi seemed to understand this and nodded.

Now, because Sakura didn't hear any of this, she started to yell again. "That's not what I meant you fucking idiot! I am very well aware of how I was made, thank you!" Realizing how that could be misinterpreted, her face turned darker red. "I mean, not because I've done…that, I'm a medic for crying out loud! What kind of a medic doesn't know about that?!"

Kisame sighed again. "Itachi-san, can't you do something about her?" Itachi glanced over at Kisame before picking his book back up. "You are not in charge, and therefore you can not order me. I believe Leader-sama put me in charge, until he returns."

Tobi shook his head repeatedly. "No, Itachi-san, it rotates, and you were leader last time. It's Kisame-san's turn now!" Kisame grinned at Itachi and pointed to the floor. Itachi got up from his chair and walked towards the door without a word, though the aura coming off of him was not a pleasant one. He closed the door quietly behind him and his footsteps faded away.

"That poor kunoichi…"

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**Oh dear, what price will Sakura pay for her mouth? Please review, since they are inspiring and motivating. And I like reviews.**

**And to finish my exclamation on the previous chapter....**

**BUT ITASAKUSASU IS EVEN BETTER!!!**


	3. Bring On The Madness

**This has got to be my fastest update in the history of...ever... It's all thanks to the kind reviews! Some of you mentioned the triangle of ItaSakuSasu, but I tend to make random outbursts, so that MIGHT not even show up in the plot....yeah I'm evil....**

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Once Itachi's footsteps could no longer be heard, everyone in the room got up and proceeded to follow him. No sense in having the girl's death be a complete waste, they might as well get some entertainment in hearing her insult Itachi. Besides, Hidan could use her as a sacrifice.

All four of the remaining members jogged down the hall to the stairs, with Hidan in the lead, though Tobi was gaining fast.

"Tobi wants to be first!" he called out as he passed Hidan on the stairs. Hidan wasn't one so easily defeated. He reached out and pulled Tobi by the back of his cloak, so that he crashed to the ground. Hidan leapt over his body and landed at the foot of the stairs.

"Take that, motherfucker!" Kisame and Deidara just watched with distasteful looks on their faces. They stepped over Tobi and continued to the bottom of the stairs.

Sensing that no one was around him, Tobi jumped to his feet and yelled, "Wait for Tobi!" He caught up to the group of spectators just as Itachi was about to open the door to where Sakura was being kept. All of the men stood behind Itachi with eager looks on their faces. Itachi paid them no attention.

Sakura had heard footsteps outside her door and had stopped yelling. Now she had stood up as straight as she could manage and tried to look intimidating. 'Yeah, right. 5'4" is only tall enough to scare a seven year old.' This thought did nothing to help her foul mood. She heard the door to her cell creaking open and snapped her head over to it. What she saw made her blood freeze in her very veins. _Uchiha…Itachi…_

"You…" she growled. He looked no different from her encounter with him two years before. He wore the standard Akatsuki cloak; black with crimson clouds scattered across the cloak. His raven hair was in a ponytail, though several locks of hair had freed themselves from said ponytail and framed his face. If there was any difference in his face, it was that it looked even more emotionless than the last time she had seen it. Fortunately for her, his eyes were not spinning with the Sharingan; they were the onyx that he was born with. He opened his mouth to speak.

"It would be highly prudent for you, kunoichi, to not finish that sentence." He deadpanned.

"Are an evil, sadistic bastard that had better let me go at once!" She had paid him as much attention as the wall. She raised her fist as if to attack and before she could even blink she felt cool metal against her throat. She swallowed against her will.

" Doing so would make our efforts a complete waste of time." His voice was coming from behind her and it tickled her ear. She had to suppress a shudder. Her insults appeared to have no affect on him. He gave the kunai against her throat enough pressure to draw a small drop of blood. "I need not remind you of whose presence you are in." He said this lowly, the threat in the statement barely concealed.

Sakura refused to back down in the slightest, knowing that it was a very stupid thing to do. He had no reason to hesitate in killing her, and would probably relish the prospect.

"But of course. The arrogant bastards of Uchiha are not easily forgotten. I have yet to met another that can best their bigheadedness." The challenge in her voice was easily recognizable. It was as though she was _daring_ him to kill her.

Kisame closed his eyes and turned his head away, not wanting to see the gore that would taint the room when Itachi was finished. Hidan now could see that his label of her as a 'dumbfuck' was perfectly suiting, based on her extremely foolish behavior. Deidara on the other hand, felt a surge of gratitude towards the kunoichi for voicing his own opinions of the Uchiha heir. Her death would be an utter shame. Tobi just watched with his head tilted to the side again.

Itachi applied more pressure to the kunai so now there was a small trickle of blood coming from her neck.

"Either Konoha's shinobi standards have fallen, or you are a kunoichi possessing less than average intelligence." He replies somehow managing to sound intimidating and bored out of his mind at the same time. Before Sakura could even respond to this insult, she cannot feel the kunai on her neck anymore and finds herself to be restrained by the means of someone wrapping their arms around her from behind.

"Don't say any more mean things to Itachi-san! He gets very emotional about that." The voice of a young boy says loudly in her ear. Without really thinking about her now stranger situation, she snorted, "I bet he does…" Her new captor put a finger to the cut on her neck and she flinched involuntarily.

"Sakura-chan, you should be nicer to Itachi-san! This wouldn't happen if you were!" Now he sounded indignant. Before she could really try to comprehend what in the hell was going on there was some shouting.

"The fuck? I thought you stopped him from doing that to every new person he sees! He's a damn embarrassment!" Hidan gave Deidara a look like he had just been caught with his hand in the cookie jar.

"When I suggested stabbing the person instead, you know what he told me, un? 'Violence is never the answer, Deidara-senpai!'"

Kisame just stared. That statement coming from an Akatsuki member was just beyond weird. "Violence is _always_ the answer." Looking around at the insanity surrounding her, Sakura just lost any respect she might have had for the terrorist group. Tobi had released her and was currently trying to console Itachi.

"There, there Itachi-san, Sakura-chan didn't mean that. You are a very generous, giving, loving person!" Tobi was patting his head all the while. If it wasn't forbidden to kill their fellow group members, Tobi would've been taken to the world of Tsukuyomi long ago.

"Tobi, if you want to live to see tomorrow, I recommend you stop touching me this instant." Itachi said to him monotonously. Tobi backed away slowly. Sakura's confusion was easy to see on her face. "What the hell is going on here?" she finally asked them. Deidara and Hidan had been so engrossed in their argument on the proper methods of training someone that they had forgotten about Sakura. Kisame was too aghast at Tobi's non-violent beliefs to be able to form coherent words.

Tobi came up and hugged Sakura from the front this time. "Sakura-chan came here to be Tobi's new best friend!" He snuggled into her shoulder. Sakura tensed, but was in so much disbelief that she didn't reject the affectionate move. Deciding that the way to get Tobi off was to give him what he wanted, she slowly put her arms around him in an awkward way.

Instead of the desired result, Tobi saw this as a signal that she liked him and only clung to her even more. "Tobi is such a good boy!"

Deidara walked over to the wall and began to bang his head against it while muttering, 'what happened to dignity, un?' and 'why do _I_ get the insane partner?' Since Hidan's argument with Deidara was apparently over, he answered Sakura's question.

"Because _you_ were on _our_ fucking land, bitch!" Now he had entered Sakura's room as well, leaving Kisame as the only one still in the hallway. Sensing his sudden solitude, he quickly followed suit. Sakura scowled at having five men at such close proximity, since the room was rather small, and there was no way she could fight off five men on her own with her chakra levels as low as they were.

Deciding that the shorter she was with these men the better, she knew she needed to explain why she was there. Sadly for her, the document she needed was in her backpack.

"Where is my bag?" she asked Kisame, since he seemed to be the most sane of the group. He raised an eyebrow. "And what makes you think that we would tell you?"

She raised her own as a counter. "There are some very important documents in there and I don't want you lot reading them. I also am getting rather thirsty."

Itachi actually blinked in confusion. She clearly was the most idiotic kunoichi he had ever met. Right as he was about to tell her so, a loud beeping went off from somewhere above them.

"The cake is done!" Tobi exclaimed gleefully as he pulled a pair of oven mitts out of his cloak. Five pairs of eyes stared at him.

"Oh, great, un. What kind of cake is it _this_ time? It had better not be another shitty double fudge cake!" Deidara shuddered at the mere memory of it.

Tobi was headed towards the door with a spring in his step. "Carrot cake. Konan-san says we don't get enough vegetables and said that if Tobi doesn't find a way to get you to eat them, Tobi will have paper cuts for the rest of his life!" He sounded terrified of the last part.

Knowing that Tobi wouldn't be the only one with paper cuts of that cake wasn't eaten, all of the Akatsuki members stalked out of the room, leaving Sakura even more confused than she was when she woke up.

"Hey! Maybe I want a piece!" she called after them, but they were beyond caring; a life full of paper cuts was not a laughing matter.

Tobi was upstairs putting the cake on a cooling rack before anyone said anything. Kisame had grabbed a bag of salt and vinegar chips and was munching on them when he asked, "What kind of idiot tells us about secret documents she doesn't want us to read?"

Itachi stalked over to the cabinets looking for something edible. " Her kind, apparently. That kunoichi is not in a right mental state." Having found a box of raisins, he leaned against the counter as slowly ate the raisins one by one.

Deidara was sitting at the kitchen table waiting for the cake to cool, because he secretly loved carrot cake. It was his own little piece of heaven, which he didn't dare say with Hidan in the room. He plopped Sakura's bag in the middle of the table. He had been the one to take it from her, but he hadn't had a chance to go through it yet.

"Well, lets see what she was talking about, un."

"More like fucking _screeching_!" Hidan was also sitting at the table, though not for the same reason as Deidara. Itachi didn't let anyone near him when he had raisins, and Hidan hated the smell the things gave off, so he kept his distance. "Her voice has given me a damn headache!"

"Yeah, and did you see the color of her hair? Ridiculous…" Kisame offered between the crunches of chips being consumed.

"Once again, Kisame, you are forgetting the key point, un. Her forehead is the size of a damn billboard!" Deidara put his chin in his hand, now thoroughly bored.

"Her eyes are much too large compared to the rest of her facial features and easy to read. They don't match her face well at all." Itachi's distaste for the kunoichi was plain enough that even he contributed.

Tobi had finished placing his precious cake safely on the cooling rack. He had taken off his oven mitts and was now scolding his fellow members. "Stop insulting Sakura-chan! She is a beautiful person and Tobi's newest best friend!" Kisame actually nodded his head. "Tobi's right, we have better things to do than insult the prisoner, even if it is all true." He admitted, "We should probably take a look at this document of hers." Itachi walked over to open her bag, and was about to do so when Hidan snatched it and dumped its contents all over the table.

"So childish," Itachi said in his usual tone, or lack of one. Everyone was now looking at Sakura's belongings. All there really was were a crapload of kunai and shuriken, some food and water, a spare set of clothes, some soldier pills, and a large scroll. Deidara reached for the scroll and unrolled it. Hidan, Kisame, and Tobi leaned over his shoulder to read it as well. Itachi was sitting across from Deidara, and, therefore, couldn't see it and was not willing to crane his neck in such a crude manner as to read said scroll. Suddenly, Deidara dropped the scroll as though burned. The look of shock on the faces of Deidara, Kisame, Hidan, and Tobi were so blatantly obvious, that Itachi had the urge to go and snatch that scroll and find out what was so surprising.

"Ho-"

"-ly"

"shit…"

-

Sakura was now calculating her odds of escaping. She was sitting cross-legged on the floor and analyzing every bit of information she had gathered about the Akatsuki based on her last encounter with them. All of them, excluding Kisame, where fairly short, hell, Deidara only looked to be about an inch or so taller than Sakura herself. Kisame, on the other hand, towered over all of them at more than six foot.

It seemed that the one called Hidan had been right about Kisame being the one with the sword. It looked huge and lethal, and Sakura would bet her life that Kisame was able to use it to its full capacity. She did not want to have to fight him on her way out.

Sakura knew less about how the loud one named Hidan attacked. Her only clue was the rosary that he wore around his neck. She wasn't very familiar with Janshin-ism and had no clue about how he would attack. The unknown was not something to be messed with.

Deidara appeared to not like working in a group and preferred to work alone, meaning that he probably does fight better alone and might be alright to target first on her escape. If he can't work in a team, it should screw up combo attacks and slow them down, she reasoned.

Tobi couldn't possibly be a fighter. The worst he would probably do is hug her to death, so crashing into him on her way out would not be a problem whatsoever. Even though that hug could slow her down, Sakura was fairly sure she could get away from Tobi unscathed.

Itachi was a different story. She knew that he could form hand seals faster than she could bat an eyelash. His Sharingan made it so that she would probably not be able to even lay a hand on him. If she met him during her escape, she might as well surrender right then and there.

Before she could elaborate further, Deidara appeared in the doorway separating her from the chaos outside of her cell. He had a look of the utmost horror on his face while he looked at her.

"You. Upstairs. Now. Un."

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**Whatever is in that scroll seems to have really shaken everyone, ne? Well, this is the part no likes reading, but I'll put it here anyway.**

**FOR THE LOVE OF ITASAKU REVIEW!!!!!!!**


	4. Just When Things Couldn't Get Any Worse

**Yup I'm back! Have been studying for finals, but I've been wanting to update for while. Finals officially suck. So here's some more about the problem of Sakura. It's a bit shorter than I had originally planned, but oh well. Itachi's probably OOC a bit, but it's funnier this way. Besides, Deidara liked it! Enjoy!**

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Sakura just stared at the horrified man in front of her with amusement. "The cake's really that bad?" She raised an eyebrow while she said this. The corners of Deidara's mouth twitched, as if they wanted to quirk up, but couldn't find the will to do it. He motioned for her to come out.

Sakura walked out of the room in a confident stride towards the blond man. Deidara appeared to want to walk behind her, making escape pretty much out of the question. Besides, she had been hoping for her chance to come later when she had more chakra.

The pair walked down the hall in silence for a while. When they reached the stairs that led to Sakura's eminent doom, Deidara broke it. "You know, if I had known about the torture you are about to go through, I would never have captured you, un. I wouldn't wish this on anyone." He was now walking beside her and looked genuinely concerned for her.

Then Sakura said a more predictable thing, "Then let me go." She said this softly, in case the other members might somehow hear, since they were getting closer to wherever Deidara was taking her. " I can't. The one who could would be Kisame, but he won't consider it a hellacious experience, un." Sakura pondered this in silence. What would be torture to Deidara and not Kisame?

"They aren't going to blow up an art museum and make me watch are they?" Deidara threw her a weak smile. "You wish, un." Sakura frowned. Now she had no clue what they were going to do to her. All sorts of blood curdling thoughts filled her head. Some of Sasori's old poison? Cutting her limbs of one by one? Baking her alive in an oven?

She was brought out of her thoughts when Deidara touched her shoulder. She stiffened immediately, but realized he was just stopping her. They were now standing in front of a door that revealed nothing about what was behind it. Deidara opened it and gave Sakura a little nudge. What was behind to make Sakura's eyes widen in shock.

It was a small kitchen with stainless steel appliances and a very professional looking stove. A massive refrigerator was near the stove for convenience. On the granite counters lay Tobi's cake, though it was surprisingly untouched. There were two ovens, one on top of the other and were gleaming in the light from the chandelier. The chandelier was just simple silver with four branches that contained regular light bulbs. A rather large oak table was on the far wall with ten chairs. None of this was all that shocking, other than the cleanliness.

The real shock was what was happening at the table. Kisame and Hidan were trying to cram Sakura's spare set of clothing into her bag along with everything else they had dumped out, and were remaining unsuccessful. Hidan was swearing all the while about women and how they were so vain and really needed to pull the stick out of places better left unsaid.

Itachi was much worse off. He was laying on his back flat on the floor unconscious. Tobi stood over him and was fanning him with a tissue as fast as his arms would allow him. He had been at it for a while and had begun to pant. Itachi's careworn face didn't appear to notice the masked man's attempts to revive him.

"Itachi-san, it's not bedtime yet! You need to get up or you won't sleep tonight, and then you'll be grumpy in the morning!" Tobi was now trying to talk Itachi out of his current state getting no more results than the fanning did.

Hidan snorted at the absurdity of what Tobi said. "As if he _could_ get any more grumpy. PMS much." Kisame just looked at Hidan as if he was insane. "Oh, you think _this _is bad? You should have seen him when we were in Kumo." Kisame shivered at the mere memory.

Deidara gestured to the madness while all poor Sakura could do was gape stupidly. These were the international terrorists everyone feared? Sakura stopped her weak chakra flow just to check that this wasn't some strange genjutsu Ino thought up.

"Kai!" The only difference was that the group had stopped their activities and were now looking at Sakura thanks to her revealing herself unintentionally.

"So it wasn't the cake…" Sakura said quietly. Kisame and Hidan gave her looks of confusion while Deidara looked a little elated. Tobi now looked rather indignant.

"Sakura-chan! This is not the time for cake!" Tobi was wagging his finger at Sakura as though she was a small child. "We need to help Itachi-san!"

"No we don't," Deidara muttered under his breath. "He's much more agreeable as he is now." Sakura smiled, having heard him.

Figuring that now would be as good as ever to try and get what she came for, Sakura walked cautiously up to Itachi and knelt beside him. She gently prodded his chest to check for a reaction. When she got none from him, she started checking for any bruises or cuts that might explain what happened. Sakura carefully lifted his raven head and found a rather large bump on the back of it. Placing Itachi's head back on the floor, she looked up at the other men with suspicion.

"Ok, I know he is a complete asshole, but hitting him over the head won't solve that," she said while looking between all four of the conscious men.

Hidan was the one who gave her an answer. " If we could actually attack him and survive, he'd already be a sacrifice for Janshin-sama. Damn Sharingan."

"Got that right, un."

"Kunoichi, we didn't do this to Itachi-san," Kisame said to her gravely. "You did."

Sakura was about to ask how in the hell she could possibly have done anything to the bastard, when Tobi started waving a scroll in her face. Grabbing it, she recognized that it was the document that had her and Itachi's engagement written on it immediately. Still, that didn't explain how he was on the floor.

"I thought I said I didn't want you lot reading this." She looked like a mother that had caught her child red-handed. The only one that actually looked somewhat guilty was Tobi.

"But Sakura-chan, we were curious! Tobi had to know!" He was jumping in place from excitement.

"You are forgetting your place. We captured you, not the other way around." Kisame said this slowly; just to be sure that she heard him correctly. Secretly though, Sakura was thrilled. They had taken her bait, and escaping with Itachi's signature would be even easier now.

Ignoring Kisame, Sakura now looked at Deidara. "So the secret's out. Somehow I doubt you all were jealous enough of Itachi that you all attacked him." Hidan snorted for the second time. "As if I want to spend the rest of my life with a bitch like you."

"According to our resident artist, pink and blue clash, so it would've never worked out between us," Kisame said to her in mock sincerity.

"After he saw how well we concealed our…err… slight surprise at what's in that scroll, he came over to see what it said. Well, he was so shocked that as he took a step back, he stumbled and hit his head on the counter," Deidara explained, enjoying the embarrassment Itachi provided himself with.

Sakura now felt a small ounce of pity for the Uchiha. The blow on his pride was almost cruel. "Actually, there's a small genjutsu on that scroll that would only affect Itachi. It's there so that I could restrain him in order to get what I came for," she lied, wishing she had thought to do that before she left Konoha. Now because Itachi was in debt of her, he might actually sign the damn thing and let her go.

"Sakura-chan came here for the marriage! Tobi gets to plan the wedding!" Tobi was nearly squealing in delight.

"Oh, dear God," Kisame groaned. Tobi as a wedding planner was enough to scare the bravest man. Hidan twitched ever so slightly at what Kisame had said. "What the fuck did you just say?"

Realizing another fight was going to start, Sakura cleared her throat. "I didn't come to marry him," she shivered slightly at the idea, "I came to get him to sign the annulment."

Understanding flooded the faces of Kisame, Deidara and Hidan. Tobi on the other hand looked tragically disappointed. "Tobi was going to have so much fun…" he trailed off sadly.

Sakura gave him a sympathetic look, but stopped when she heard the sound of water splashing off of the floor. She whipped her head to where it came from to see Deidara standing over the now very awake Itachi with an empty glass in his hand. She shot him a glare, and he shrugged in reply.

Itachi was now standing and casually glanced around, probably trying to figure out what he had missed. When he caught sight of Sakura his eyes narrowed imperceptibly.

Sakura now knew she had to be very careful in how she asked him. If she did this wrong, she would end up dead, be returned to her cell, or back where she started.

"Ohayo iinazuke," Sakura said to him, trying to sound cheerful.

"Hn," was the answer she got. Not surprised by this, Sakura tried a new method.

"Look, I don't want to marry you, and I know you don't want to marry me, so can you please sign the paper? Then we can go on with our lives as if nothing ever happened." Sakura held up the scroll for Itachi to take. He made no indication that he planned on doing so anytime soon.

Itachi smirked at her directness and strained politeness. "It is not that simple, kunoichi. If I do that, there is no gain in it for me. Marriage is not in my immediate future, meaning I can ignore the existence of the document. You cannot."

Sakura sighed. She had assumed he'd sign it just to get her out of his overly shampooed hair. Apparently, she hadn't been annoying enough, but it was too late for that now.

Tobi had lost interest in the conversation when he found out that the wedding wasn't happening. He was now frosting his precious cake with homemade vanilla frosting.

Hidan was muttering about how there was no god other than Janshin-sama. He clearly could've cared less about how this played out. The only thing he was happy about was that Sakura wasn't yelling again.

Kisame and Deidara were extremely focused on what Sakura and Itachi were saying. Kisame wondered what Itachi could possibly want from the pink haired Konoha kunoichi, while Deidara was hoping that he would sign the thing, so that Sakura would be free from him. A lifetime with Itachi wasn't a life worth living, in his opinion.

"Ok, what is it you want from me?" Sakura just hoped it wasn't important government information about Konoha. It was well known that she was the Godaime Hokage's apprentice outside the Fire Country. She also hoped that it wasn't…

"You are to fix my eyes, so that I am seeing to my full capacity again," he said monotonously.

…that. That was the other thing she was afraid he would want.

"I'd rather date Orochimaru," she said bluntly, tact forgotten. "I'll just burn the scroll then."

"You and I both know that won't work." His smirk was still on his face. Her answer had been very predictable, though Orochimaru was a bit of an insult.

She sneered, "I'll take my chances." She tried to walk towards the door, but Kisame stood in front of it.

"Remember what I said?" Kisame sounded impatient at having to explain the simple captor/captive relationship again and again.

"No, Kisame," Itachi spoke up again, "Take her back to her room." Even though Kisame was in charge, he followed his partner's orders and let the extremely angry kunoichi out of the room.

Itachi supposed that she probably thought he was giving her time to reconsider what he had said. He smirked a bit at the naivety she possessed of her situation.

She was about to learn that Uchiha Itachi doesn't ask for anything. He orders it.

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**So Sakura's even worse off than she started! Now if she figured out that she could marry him and just get a divorce....but that's another story. Thank you to the people who reviewed and a big thank you to those who are about to!**


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